After release of an exhibition by the subcommittee on antitrust, the committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, said Wednesday that he thinks it would be a very good idea to separate Instagram from Facebook, in accordance with Reuters
Cicilline reported in Reuters in an interview yesterday that "Facebook should not have been allowed to buy Instagram".
"I would be comfortable with the separation. "I think that's the right answer," Cicilline told Reuters, referring to Facebook's $ 737 million purchase of Instagram in 2012.
In a report released on Tuesday, Cicilline and staff said the Instagram market helped prevent Facebook from competing in the social media market. Facebook has become so dominant that the only real competition is between Facebook and its companies, such as Instagram, the commission said.
"Facebook has led the market to a monopoly so that Facebook competes more fiercely between its products - Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger - than with real competitors," the report said.
Of course Facebook is already taking care to make the separation very difficult, or even meaningless, since most recently joined Messenger of the social network with Instagram.
Apple, on the other hand, disputed the same report's allegations of abuse of power in a statement to the website MacRumors.